Fly Away!
by PandaIza
Summary: Eighteen year old Asaya and her friend Rayden goes on a search for her friends after being trapped in Sword Art Online. After being reunited with them, the question rises around the group. Will they help clear the death game or will they hang out to enjoy the game itself? Contain OCs. Main characters may be mentioned and make an occasional appearance.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

When Reality Hits Us

_November 6, 2022.._

On that day, the once blue sky had turned to red. The thought that I had finally found a game to escape reality from turned to a regretful thought. My virtual reality body turning into my own body from that mirror startled me greatly on that day. The day when players found out we were really in the game of Sword Arts Online was the first day I actually learned fear in MMORPGs. My petite body was frozen, staring at my reflection of that mirror with a horrified facial expression. I could see my head shaking as well as small tears forming under my golden eyes gradually fell.

"What total bullshit.." A wavering voice muttered beside me, causing me to glance at the person. My best friend..No, my dear important friend I started this game with wasn't as happy as I was. The look on his face was something I couldn't stand even to this day. It pained me to even _think_ about it. His red eyes were piercing in anger at the red cloaked floating figure and his teeth gritting with irritation. Every spot on his face back then indicated total rage.

"Good luck players." Were the last words of the suspicious figure before everything turned quiet for only a few minutes.

The uncomfortable silence were soon abrupt by the raging crowd around us both, making me drop the mirror before falling on my knees in devastation. I was shocked and scared, becoming so vulnerable to the noises that I had to cover my ears. The creator of the game disappeared. The noisy crowd was making me cry from the confusion and mixed feelings within me. Everything was (and is) real now and all we had to do was clear a hundred floors. If we die in this game, we will lose our life in the real world. I can't stand death, even to this day.

"Asaya..Asaya!" I perked my head up immediately at the second calling, letting out a soft gasp to bring myself back to reality. My two long pigtails lightly swayed behind me while my eyes didn't bother to look at the person calling to me. I knew who it was by the sound of his voice. All he did was sigh heavily while I sat there trying to bring myself together.

"Come on, we need to get out of here before it gets out of hand." He was right. He was always right, yet I couldn't even move my legs.

The dark haired man had to pick me up gently by my hand, and literally pulled me through the crowd. He really was gentle about it to my surprise, but at that time, I just wanted to cry. Things had gotten too complicated. I actually wanted out, but I knew I couldn't. The moment we were away from that cursed place, a sudden thought distracted me before I had stopped myself to stop him. It took an awkward pause after we froze in place, and I knew he was probably wondering what was wrong. My eyes were just staring at our joined hands that I desperately clutched on to as if I didn't want to lose him. That was the truth. I didn't want to lose him more than anyone.

"Wh-What about Zumo and her brother? Th-They are still back there..aren't..aren't they?" I struggled saying to him in a soft spoken tone, still refusing to look at him.

I had to force my words because I was still frightened and shocked. I was slightly shivering while using my other hand to wipe my eyes and tears. On that day, I didn't know what to do or how to act. The person I was with was definitely him, but I had never met him in person until the day of fate. Yes, he was one of my online friends I would play video games with. The only real life friends I play games with online were Zumoka and her little brother Zunaku.

"Shit..uh, they are?" That reply was enough to make me dumbfounded, completely forgetting the entire reason I was down. It was the first step to regaining my senses back together. Staring up at him with a clueless look, I raised my brows at him. "Well yeah. Everyone got teleported there.."

I smiled lightly in amusement at the reaction I got from him. It was a total look that read 'Shut up' to my smart ass reply. But still, even his actions and words weren't enough to cheer me up. The fact that he is with me then and now was really all I need. I still would like to think of all the positive things he most likely was thinking on that day.

"Should we go back and look for them?" I added in a more clear tone rather in a shaky tone like earlier with my still soft spoken voice.

I frowned deeply in worry, "And maybe the others too Rayden?"

I was worried for my friend's safety and how they were taking that announcement. But, I was also worried for Rayden because I didn't want to pressure him then. I hated feeling like a nuisance. He sighed as he looked up at me from staring at the ground. "Well we're not even sure if they're still there.

Rayden paused while glancing to his side with a blank look, "Besides, Zumo has her monkey brother with her. I'm sure they'll be fine!"

He gave me a bright smile that Rayden continue to wears even now. When I first saw it, I was literally in shock at how happy and calm he was even when earlier he was glaring daggers at the game master. For some reason, his smile back then was what really got me moving forward despite that I was still fighting with my own feelings. The moment Rayden would look at me from smiling, I immediately turned away with an uncomfortable feeling overwhelming me suddenly. I bit my lower lip nervously, thinking what would be the best course of action we would do.

"I hope you're right.." I replied softly.

Rayden started walking again with his hand still dragging me along while I lowered my head down in thought. "Don't worry 'bout them too much, Asaya. For now you should worry about yourself you know."

Even though Rayden was a positive thinker, I can tell then that he was worrying about them. The fact that he had been holding my hand for that long had proved that he cared for others. Maybe I was just overlooking things, but it was one of those instincts. He didn't want to lose me or anyone, and I can already tell that on the first day. During beta, he wasn't like that at all in terms of being protective and it was all because I had lost my willpower to fight on. It was because I was weak.

* * *

**A/N: Soooo...This is my first fanfiction up on this website, and I just want to let you all know that after this prologue, things might be a bit...different. Well, from my perspective! I'm writing this just for sheer fun, so I hope you guys enjoyed it! Review please. I apologize if it is short, but again, it is the prologue! Thank you! -Considering on posting up the first chapter tomorrow..-**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Rescucitated Hope

_February 18, 2023…_

Three months later, Rayden and I gotten to level 29 without any luck of finding the friends we've been searching for. If Zumo or her brother had gotten the chance to tell me in real life what their in-game names were, then maybe it would have been made the search much easier. Probably. Maybe..It _was _technically our fault for starting off the game before they did since we were worrying about the name of our characters. However, the both of us had thought that naming ourselves with our real names would be easier too. I mean, the same could be advised for my other online friends wherever they are. Everyday, Rayden had to deal with me in my still vulnerable state. I was still depressed, and even shocked at what we had gotten ourselves into. I was frightened, and even now, I feel guilty for always apologizing then. I know it may sound repetitive, but I was scared. I couldn't sleep almost every night. The only way for me to sleep peacefully was sleeping beside someone. In this case, Rayden. I still owe that guy something.

_Floor 11 Taft _

While wandering around on the 11th floor, it took me a while to realize that people must love the color black. But, I guess when I meant people, I think I meant Rayden only. He got himself the outfit he is still wearing now. The guy almost looked like he was wearing a formal suit armor of some sort while showing off a bright red war hammer. He is the hammer wielder while I'm a katana user who doesn't like to use shields. Sure it adds more defense, but shields doesn't really appeal to me. It just doesn't click for me, and I don't think it will. The dark haired male mentioned to me that he bought a coat in case if we go to any place with very cold conditions. I guessed that was when it hit me that it was the month of February. All we had been doing was basically train ourselves to get better and survive. It was becoming an everyday thing (and still is).

"I'm surprised." Rayden once told me. "You usually buy a ton of outfits. When are you going to get a new one?"

At that time, I was simply wearing a light armor short dress with the colors of black and white that somewhat resembles a panda. That was one of the reasons why I could never get a new one because of that resemblance of my most favorite animal. There was simply no way that I will end up buying a new one..Pfft, too late for that.

I gave a murderous glare at Rayden, which he seems to be scared of it for some odd reason. I always find it hilarious now, but his fearful facial expression didn't faze me that time. "Why?"

"Uhh…Well, it's better to get new equipment now before we continue on." He smiled awkwardly as my gold eyes softened and glanced away from him timidly.

We only managed to reach the 23rd floor, so I only thought he was referring to the fact that the monsters are getting a bit more difficult. I didn't blame him, and I was way ahead of him in the thinking process. He didn't know at that time that I had bought a new outfit! And a new sword..Yeah, I totally wasted all my money and I refused to tell him that I did. Rayden would scold me if he found out because I have a terrible habit of buying a lot of things when I'm "rich." All I did was shake my head silently at the tall hammer wielder before placing my hand around my sword's hilt that was sheathed on my right side.

"It's fine. I'm not used to fighting yet.."  
"Hey! So what am I? Your meatshield?" Rayden protested angrily. I smirked lightly and walked away, waving a small one with my free hand.

"Sure. Why not?" I replied carelessly before a frown gradually replaced my smirk.

Back in the beta, I wasn't afraid to fight. The both of us would challenge each other on killing things every time. We would constantly make bets and have a good time. Things were different now. Rayden is the frontline person while I support and it was because I was afraid of being in anyone's way. Both of us still watched each other's backs, but we would never join any guild or party. It was safe to say that my fear of trusting anyone got to me while Rayden makes friends all around just by being himself. Being myself was something hard to do now when the game is my reality. It took time for me to finally open up and it was all because…

_Floor 24.._

We were dealing with sword and shield wielding skeletons and I couldn't really say I was happy to be killing those things. The monsters were a pain in the ass to defend against. It was to the point where I started questioning how the people in the frontlines managed to get through that. Both Rayden and I had heard a rumor about these skeletons, so we were curious. I guess our curiosity led us to our fate despite I was afraid that we would die back then.

"I'm starting to think the rumors are true Rayden…" I had said the obvious to my partner, parrying a sword I was blocking before jumping away from the monster. We were situated in a rather dirty clearing near a tall mount. My poor white short boots were so smeared by the mud that I accidently slipped backwards to land on my back.

"What the hell, did you just slip? Stop being so clumsy!"  
"Excuse me sir, but it's not my fault gravity and mud hates me!"

I retorted back before scoffing when he started laughing while killing the skeletons as if they weren't any trouble to him. It annoyed me that the first minute he was having trouble killing the monsters, and the next he was killing them like he had the power of banning those skeletons. No wonder he calls his weapon the ban hammer..But still, it made me feel so useless. The moment I stood up, I heard a scream for help that distracted me enough for my guard to lower. I hesitated on dodging an attack from a monster before moving closer to Rayden.

"You heard that too?" He had asked me as I nodded my head.

I was trying to pinpoint the exact direction where I heard the scream from while letting my team mate push back those coming near us. The scream was heard again, and it sounded much clearer than before. Thank goodness I had managed to figure out the direction it came from. "This way! Hurry!"

I called to Rayden before running to the direction, avoiding any monster in my way. The feeling that was overwhelming me at the time felt rather intense as if I was having one of those really bad feelings from fear and worry. My heart was beating so quickly from my concern that I was sprinting faster than Rayden himself. Ever since that day where I found that if we were to die here and we would too in the real world, I wanted to try to help as many people as possible from losing their lives. I still don't want to see deaths now but unfortunately, that day on the 24th floor was far enough.

As we continued running, we finally saw what it seemed to be a female player with long brown hair being cornered by a bunch of skeletons wielding an axe. I tried my best to observe her hp bar from my spot, but had to wait until I was closer. I became distracted at another thing I noticed. There were so many monsters around the girl, who was trying her best to ward them away from her, and two other people were trying their hardest to reach that girl. When I first looked at the duo, I couldn't help back then but to think that they looked awfully familiar. If I wasn't distracted enough by that constant wondering who they could be, I would have foreseen an attack coming at me from a hidden monster.

"Watch out!" Rayden's voice brought me back to reality as he pushed me down on the ground to avoid the attack.

I was shocked at first because I didn't understand what just happened, but the moment I witnessed a giant skeleton hammering the spot I was at with an axe over Rayden's shoulder, my mouth was wide open in astonishment mixed with fear. I knew that the situation wasn't good at all..The cursor on top of the hidden monster was red.

"Be careful next time!" The man yelled at me after getting off of me from protecting me.

"Thanks again.." I murmured softly as I slowly sat up, thinking at the angry tone of his voice and the skeleton near us. It took me a few seconds to remember about the trio in trouble near us.

I gasped, "Rayden, the others!"

"Oh right! Shit!"

I knew that our problem was that giant skeleton, so I told him that I would hold it off while he goes to help the trapped girl. Of course, he protested against it and to be honest, I was feeling so pressured and frightened. Those monsters may be slow, but dude, they hit hard! I simply ignored Rayden's continuous cries and stood up to stare up at the skeleton with my hand ready to take out my katana. "Just go! Please.."

I demanded desperately before launching myself in the air to dodge an attack. Now that I thought about it, that was probably the first time Rayden had heard me scream like that. I couldn't blame him if he was surprised. I was usually so calm and soft-spoken. My emotions were just running wild, but I knew I had to let the heavy hitter do the saving. I wasn't entirely sure if he heard my soft pleading at the end, but I was sure..that I was ready to die doing something for once. I wish I wasn't so over-exaggerating back then. The rumored skeleton was right in front of me after all.

Successfully holding it off and looking back to the others occasionally, I noticed Rayden had achieved on saving the female and seemed to be smiling at her and at the others. It was probably to reassure them that they were going to be okay, but my thoughts of that sight weren't exactly that. I was feeling indifferent, and I realize now that if it wasn't for that irritating feeling of him being all happy-go-lucky while I was struggling alone I wouldn't have gotten much more depressed. I know that I was so pathetic back then that now I swear that I will never let that feeling get the best of me. That feeling..I couldn't describe it, but all I know that it just had me start attacking the giant skeleton with all my might. I was dying just after one hit from his axe that left me tumbling on the ground.

"That other girl needs help!" The female warned loudly.

"What? No! Asaya!" I struggled to push myself up from the ground, looking up at the monster with glaring gold eyes.

"Asaya?" An all too familiar young male voice questioned that made me froze and had calmed me down back to my original demeanor.

"Wait that's Asaya?! We have to save her!"

That was the moment when I finally realized who they were and why they were familiar. I only imagined Rayden and that female stranger had no idea what was going on. I believed that I was the only one who caught on because I knew that they were familiar somehow. The only thing I could do was feel somewhat relieved, leaving me to smile to myself for the first time in months. I took a quick glance at my HP to notice only that the giant skeleton was ready to attack me once again. Immediately frowning in disapproval, I sighed heavily before managing to push myself away from the attack. I had my try on putting the monster's health down, I had thought, so now I had no choice but to let the others handle it. Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching me that caused me to weakly lift my hand over my shoulder before crying out the words, "Your turn Zumo!"

"Right! Let's do this monkey!" The short haired girl replied in confidence as she gave me a high five.

I changed my sitting position to feel more relaxed while watching carefully the two as they battled the boss. My hands were planted behind me as one of my legs bent upward with my arm resting on it. It had taken me a short while to notice the unknown female was resting as well. Again at that time, I was stupid so all I did was ignore her..bitterly. I was panting heavily as I begin to open up the main menu to my equipment. Like hell I was going to let my friends fight alone..Not ever.

"What are you guys doing..? You should help Zumo and Zunaku."

"Wait..That's them?"

I rolled my eyes at Rayden's dense reaction while answering bluntly, "Of course."

I re-equipped to my better ones to put my stats up somehow before glaring at the hammer wielder standing beside me. The look on his face, I remembered, was full of fear and worry. It was as if he knew what I was planning to do next, but I only thought he was just surprised because of my sudden change of clothing. "If you're not going to fight..Then I will.." _Dumbass.._

As much as I wanted to say that last thought out loud, I knew I couldn't because I was already exhausted. I was all worn out to the point my legs was struggling to move from my command to as a steel breast plate covered my breasts underneath the revealing blue kimono outfit that replaced my panda outfit. My right naked shoulder was then covered by a shoulder plate while a rather stylish half steel greaves covered my feet and the black leggings. A light blue bow on my back can be seen flowing behind me. After managing to stand up, I took my katana with my hand as I glared at the skeleton boss. "Whatever..I'm going in."

The moment I was about to charge in the battle, I felt someone's hand on my shoulder before I myself fell back on the ground again on my bottom. "Uhh..No! I'm not letting you hurt yourself again. So stay back and recover your HP."

I froze and watched him joined the battle then with a look of apprehension. His words had surprised me. I remember how pathetic I was because I didn't care about dying. I felt useless and unneeded because I was far too worried if I was holding anyone back. Was I selfish and pathetic? I had thought so.

In the end, I only let the three finish off the giant skeleton.

"Man I'm so glad you two are alright!"

As mentioned before, Zumoka is my real life friend with short black hair and green eyes. She is slightly taller than me, and is a dagger wielder. Her outfit is rather normal, which surprises me still. And yes, it is still the same even to this day except it is upgraded courtesy to her little brother Zunaku. She wears a plain black long sleeved V-cut top underneath a checkered green sweater covering it and the sleeves midway. Because it is a light metal equipment, her too had a steel breast plate and her wrists covered by armguards. It looked like a wing actually. Along with a plain white skirt, the steel plates flowed around it in a wavy pattern as black leggings covered her entire legs. That's what I thought until realizing it ended to the point the same silver leg greaves covered most of her feet up to her knees. Those too looked like wings. It was similiar to my own leg greaves except mine had a somewhat criss-cross manner on covering my black leggings. My blue kimono would reveal my leggings in the bottom and no sleeve cover my left arm enough for people to see a plain bandage covering my breast when I'm not in battle mode. There was a reason why I didn't want to equip my new outfit back then...It was different than what I usually LIKE to wear.

"Yeah I could say the same to you guys!" Rayden answered cheerfully as I idled beside him with my arms folded. The steel plates now were gone due to un-equiping them after the battle.

"Never again will the ugly troll pick where we'll be going next.."

"What?! Why?!" Zumoka exploded at her calm brother, "I wanted to see if the rumors were true!"

I raised a brow in curiosity, "You guys too?"

Zunaku usually has black hair in real life, but he somehow dyed his hair white with that small ponytail of his hanging. Even now, I still haven't asked him how he managed to do such a thing. I thought there were no way of getting dye items..I mean otherwise, I would go _crazy _with getting them myself! The little brother's eyes were green as well as he played the role of a spear wielder with leather equipment. His entire outfit consisted of a gray furry long coat on top of a shirt with leather belting as well, gray belted leather pants, and plain black strap boots. His hands were covered by black gloves. He never wears steel plates at all.

"Yeah! A giant skeleton with a giant axe sounded interesting to fight!"

"And to see if it's true that it spawns with the souls of fallen ones here?" I added bluntly.

"Yup!" I sweat dropped at her answer. At first I thought that she was crazy to think fighting against something that powerful was interesting...But I had to consider that I was crazy too for thinking the same thing.

Rayden laughed before patting the girl's head, "Silly Zumo~ Those skeletons that you guys were fighting earlier was proof that it was true!"

"No shit Captain Obvious.." I grumbled, glancing at the male as I watched his facial expression turned to a startled and annoyed one. It was the typical reaction to my smart ass replies, I had called it. I immediately looked away with an amusing smirk. It was always fun back sassing at him because it seems so easy to do so. Hearing the laughter from the siblings calmed me down. The fact that they were alive had eased my worries, but that wasn't enough to cure those hidden feelings inside me. Especially..Not after _that_.

"Ah..Um.." A small voice interrupted our reunion, causing us to look at the person. It was the brown haired female that the two was with. "Thank you guys for saving me!"

Zumoka grinned, "You're welcome Syd! Do you want to keep moving though?"

Rayden and I both blinked dumbfounded, "Huh?"

Before the short haired girl could explain to us the reason why she asked that, I noticed the swift facial expression change of the brunette. I had been watching the girl named Syd rather closely. Something about her clicked still..And it wasn't because of the weird sensation earlier that caused me to go berserk. Okay, maybe it could be an option but…never mind that. She seemed to be in shock or rather, in pain. Finally my first sign of worry was shown to the girl as I slowly pursed my lips. I had assumed the others caught on to what was going on with her.

"Syd?" Zumoka asked again, but in a much more softer tone than earlier as she walked closer to her.

The brown haired girl suddenly fell forward to the ground, causing the majority of us to jump and let out a startled gasp. We saw a dagger attached to her back that made me raise my hands to cover my mouth in horror.

Zumoka quickly ran towards to her fallen friend before watching her body deteriorate into a thousand pieces. "Syd! No!"

The dark haired girl started crying out a scream of agony as tears rolled down her cheeks. Watching Rayden and her brother try to cheer her up while I was still frozen up, I couldn't help but blame myself for Syd's death. How could I not notice that she was in danger? If it wasn't for me being so...I mean, if I was paying more attention to that girl, I would have noticed that her HP was the same low HP still and possibly had no recovery items. I regret feeling so…jealous.

* * *

**A/N: And cut! What did you guys think? Go ahead and chew me out on a couple things. I'm expecting that actually the next few chapters, and I really do appreciate reviews and criticism. Is it bad or good? Next chapter will be out..Uhm, Sunday. If not, next week. I just don't want to upload too much. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed it~**

**Next Chapter: Facing Reality.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Facing Reality

As it was being revealed to us after that, the secret was that someone had been following Syd for she was a target of a PKer. Zumoka and her brother had been helping her run away on the 24th floor. Despite the fact I was skeptical at first when they mentioned they had no idea why she was targeted, I was still reminded of my failure to save her. She was still a player trying to run away from death. That girl was near me this whole time, and even today, I still regret not being able to do that. I wasn't strong enough to control my feelings was my sorry excuse.

_Floor 11 Taft _

We all teleported back to the 11th floor to calm ourselves down from that terrifying event that night. I don't know about the siblings that time, but I was certain that that was Rayden's and my first time witnessing someone's death. Thinking about it now still irks me. Zumoka was mourning for the loss of Syd while her brother was comforting her. Seeing her cry at that inn pained me to the point I actually wanted to punish myself somehow for being stupid. Rayden had not said a word since we came back, and he was lying on the other bed with his back facing us. I was the only one leaning on the wall across the room, being quiet as ever. I remembered noticing the siblings were our levels, which we had leveled a few. We were level 31 then.

"Do you guys know the name of the person who was after Syd?" I asked softly while looking through my menu and equipping my armor from earlier. I took out my sword to switch it to this new katana I had bought.

"Thai." Zunaku replied with the same soft spoken tone as mine.

Mentally saying a thank you to the boy, I closed my eyes and left the room without a single word. Not even one single person followed. My eyes glared at the direction ahead of me with remorse as I soon left the inn and onto the streets. I didn't know where I was going or where to look first, but there were two possible destinations on my mind. The 24th floor again or..to my death. Maybe both. I knew what I was planning to do, yet I still was contemplating with myself. Was it worth killing a player literally? If I did kill him, I would be known as a murderer, a PKer too right? Even now that concept still bothers me. PKers too are living people..But..just murdering people? Wrong.

However, the fact that I kept blaming myself for Syd's death still overwhelmed me. I laugh now, but back then, I wasn't.

I stopped in front of the teleportation portal, I call it, before taking out my own teleport crystal. While staring at it for a few moments, I had begun to feel a bit bothered. I decided to ignore it for the time being before I moved myself to the last floor I went to.

_Floor 24.._

The entire time, I walked on that same dirt road while having that same feeling inside me. It almost felt like I was in some scary movie. For a split second, I had lowered my guard and I know now that was the last thing I should've done. I had felt an eerie presence behind me, making me immediately turn around and saw a person with a red-hooded coat moving a sword towards me. My eyes opened in fear due to the fact that player had a red cursor. With hesitation, I cried out a meek cry as I managed to dodge it by ducking my head before distancing myself from the assassin. That was then I realized...I had set myself up in a trap and was now surrounded by a bunch of red cursor players. Those crafty bastards had been hiding.

"Looks like we have caught ourselves a beater guys. Your name is Asaya, right?" One of the players spoke as I turned to glare rudely at the assassin.

"I'm not a beater." That term...I've been hearing that everywhere. I was starting to dislike that name now. "I'm looking for someone named Thai. I'm pretty sure one of you is him right?"

I gazed around the circle of PKers with a stoic facial expression, taking a mental note that there were about eight people around me. Not one person said a word afterwards, and it was irritating. It was to the point I was actually losing my patience. My hand released my katana from my side before slashing the air before me and pointed it at the smirking attacker. My eyes darkened, listening as his laugh was getting more annoying.

"Yeah..Keep laughing. I'm going to kill you all anyway if you don't give me an answer."

"Ooooh I'm scared. What do you want, kid?"

I scoffed before staring at the next person who talked, "Excuse me? I don't have time for this. Which one of you is Thai? Why did you killed Syd?"

The more I looked around, the more I thought that I was in a room full of mirrors while the hooded assassin was the one in the mirrors. I was getting annoyed that I gripped onto my katana's hilt tightly before slowly lowering it to my side. "Oh you're friends with that bitch? She's a traitor. She almost killed our leader."

"Haha yeah! But she couldn't! She's so weak!"

"And she's a liar. I'm glad she's dead."

I gazed around to stare at the people talking and laughing with disbelief. Those kind of people I never liked and it makes me angry now just thinking about how much my friend was crying for her. I gritted my teeth in rage while glaring murderously at the person who seemed to be the leader. He was the guy who tried attacking me earlier. At that point, I didn't care anymore. They had crossed the line to me. I sighed heavily and lowered my head.

"Listen, I don't know what happened..And I don't want to know the full story." Almost immediately, I charged at the leader with my hands gripped tightly on my weapon's hilt. "But the fact that you killed her and made my best friend cry is unforgivable!"

After that, everything was just chaotic. I couldn't describe the words that I felt during my battle with the eight people. I was too blinded with anger and hatred mixed with my depressed emotions. Swords were clashing, along with struggling grunts. My HP was depleting almost every second, and the sad part was the fact that these guys were at least two levels below me. They were awfully strong, and I started thinking that I wouldn't make it alive.

It almost felt like I was just suppressing them or rather, a beating for PKing someone they know in game. Again, I will never want to see any more people die ever under my watch. Aside that I blamed them for Syd's death and hurting Zumoka, I actually believed that I would risk my life giving a message to stop PKing. I've always hated PKers in games, but in Sword Art Online, that was a different story especially when you're trapped in the game. PKers still kill people for fun, for revenge like these idiots, or other stupid reasons. I realized then I absolutely detested them.

In the end, I was the one left on the ground while the leader and four other people surrounded me in case I would put myself back on my feet and fight back. The other three members was scattered near us, struggling to get up.

"You managed to beat almost half of us, but you're at death's door now." The leader said in a low tone as I heard him shifting his sword. "I'm the one you're looking for. Tell me something, do you have a death wish to fight us?"

At first I couldn't find the right words to say without stuttering over my own words. That person that attacked me earlier really was the one I was looking for, and I knew I should have just killed him when I got the chance. But, that question continues to replay in my mind like a broken record. My reaction was obviously going to be taken to a negative turn due to my emotions. My conflicted feelings caused tears to stream down my face before looking up at Thai with a half smile.

"I might as well. I tried stopping you and that's enough for me. But, I doubt that my death would do much anyway."

My idiotic words made them laugh in amusement as I slowly lowered my head in defeat, crying silently to myself. I was accepting my fate that I was going to die then by that curved blade of Thai's. Really, I didn't mind because no one needed me I had thought. He began to thrust his sword towards me, and within a second later, I heard running before swords clashing was heard. I immediately looked up with a startling face. My body froze after seeing a black coat waving in front of me. I noticed that the person's hair was black, and I immediately thought of Rayden. For a moment, I had thought that it was him but that wasn't the case. It seemed like his appearance made the hooded people freeze, but I couldn't get over the fact that his speed was something I couldn't keep up with. It was as if he had attacked them away from both of us within a heartbeat. I managed to see his face though, and my heart had fallen realizing that it wasn't the hammer wielder.

"Who..?" I murmured softly, having no idea who that guy was. But he had saved me.

Thai and his buddies though looked frightened to the point they looked like cowering chickens. "It's him..!"

"Let's leave, hurry!"

And they did. I had expected the stranger to follow them, but it was too late since they had teleported themselves back to town. At that time, I didn't know who that guy was and how known he was to the game community. He wasn't in any guild, so I had assumed he was a solo player. Despite the slight relief that I was saved, I couldn't help but feel angry at the stranger for saving me. I decided to keep shut while continuing to weep quietly. It was probably the fact that I had wanted to die for Syd dying near me. A moment of silence held between the person and I before I heard him sheath his sword. It brought me back to reality afterwards as I blindly noticed he was crouching down before me to offer a hand.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a worried look.

I looked at him with a disappointed face, "I guess...Why did you save me?"

"I couldn't let a player die." He replied.

I let out a soft chuckle before glancing away from the stranger, "I wouldn't mind dying though. I deserve it, and I'm not really needed."

"That's not true.. Doesn't your best friend need you?" I froze at his question as I had let out a soft gasp.

I had assumed he had been watching my battle the entire time because of those two words. Even if he did, it was hard to believe that some stranger would even stay to watch someone like me take out all my guilt on that PK group. It really took me by surprise, so I was left speechless with my eyes opened in realization. But I refused to let his words get to me. I was persistent, but evidently so was he.

"Well..She has her brother and Rayden.." I shut my lips together, thinking to myself of a reason why I was revealing things to him. The fact that he was the one who saved me was one of the possible reasons, or maybe because he was trying to comfort me. I didn't understand then, but I knew there were too many things in my mind then.

Even when I wanted to scream, I refrained myself not to. He then pulled back his hand before turning to the side and sat down. The look on his face was calm, which made me wonder how he can. It almost reminded me of...

"Everyone is afraid of dying, but they're not planning to give up." He paused as I blinked dumbfounded at how serious his face looked. When his dark eyes looked down at me, I slightly opened my mouth. "Do you believe any of your friends want you to die and leave them behind?"

Those words had saved me. Rather, those words helped me save myself. If it wasn't for that guy saving me from those PKers and comforting me afterwards, then I would have really done something I'd truly regret. He reminded me of that day when we found out we were trapped. I was stupid to have forgotten the reason why Rayden held my hand. I was going to let their biggest fear come to life, and just remembering all those times where the hammer wielder saved me just made me realize something important. I then noticed that the person was giving me a light smile before I gave him a smile of my own. I wiped my eyes with my hand before pushing myself up to sit on my knees beside the player. My hand reached for my katana before that dispersed into thin air.

I let out a heavy sigh as an attempt to calm myself down before curling my hands on my lap, "I'm Asaya..Sorry for involving you into all this.."

"Don't worry about it. I'm Kirito."

"Kirito.." I said softly before looking at him from my hands. "Thanks for saving me."

He gave me hope that day. He made me realize something I was stupid enough to almost forget. The player then handed me a HP potion , which I took gently with a grateful nod before I frowned sadistically. His friendly gesture reminded me of Syd because I knew that that was what I should have done earlier that day instead of ignoring her. It almost made me cry again, but I swiftly shook my head to brush it off.

"I should get going. Will you be okay?" Kirito asked me as he stood up from his spot while I had drank the potion he gave me. I clutched on the bottle tightly, giving him a look of self-confidence before it disappeared into pieces.

I stood up after him before wiping off all the dirt on my kimono outfit, "I'll be fine now. I'm gonna head back to my friends after this."

For some reason, I sounded rather disappointed and I wasn't sure why myself. He was a young kid from the looks of it and despite of him being taller, it felt kind of sad that someone younger than me were giving me words of wisdom.

"That's good. Just remember, they need you as much as you need them."

I frowned deeply again as I glanced to the side. He was right, and I was really grateful for him to be there when I had completely lost it. I _did _need to be there for Zumoka when she was crying instead of heading to my death. I had to be like Rayden and think positive for once instead of being negative. I needed to be there for them.

Before I knew it, Kirito had started walking away from me. I didn't know why I had hesitated on calling out to him. "Ah..Wait! Kirito...Is there any way for me to repay you for saving me?"

He gave me a gentle smile as he looked back at me, "Just stay alive for your friends."

I remembered him saying, leaving me in a speechless state. That was the first, only, and last time I would see him. It almost felt like Kirito was there to remind me who I am. Staying alive would mean not dying, but being alive is being myself to me. That was something I had been wondering those past three months, and I had forgotten then who I was. I wanted to escape reality by playing this game, so it's just counterproductive to also want to get out of here, you know? That was my mistake then. I should be enjoying this game because this may be the only time this has ever happened. Even now, I'm still trying to enjoy being here and escaping death. I just want to protect my friends always.

I named this day, "The Day of Resuscitated Hope."

After I had calmed down and said a silent farewell to the one who gave me hope, I watched him walk off. Taking out my teleport crystal, I raised it in front of me and recited the words, "Teleport: Taft!"

_Floor 11 Taft_

When I arrived, the first thing I saw was a person laying on the ground a couple feet from the teleportation portal. I wasn't exactly sure who it was and whether they were just sleeping or lying there for whatever reason I had thought of in my mind. It made me raise a brow in curiosity before slowly and cautiously walk my way to the person. As I got closer and closer to the point I could actually see the person much clearly, I immediately froze right on my tracks and stared at them. They were definitely sleeping in a rather relaxing position with their hands behind their head and lightly snoring. To my surprise, the resting person was Rayden. Now the thought of why was he at a place like this got me wondering until I came up of one thing that lit in my mind. He was waiting for me, but again, I wasn't exactly sure. I thought hard on what I should do, considering the experience I had gone through. I was thinking of either letting him sleep there peacefully, or wake him up because the thought of some person attacking him suddenly bothered me. The second one was what got me motivated to do just that. I silently walked over to the hammer wielder, and poked his shoulder with my foot. There was no response.

"Freakin.." I sighed lightly and folded my arms, glaring down at him. I decided to kick his shoulder hard this time, which actually woke him up.

The moment I saw his red eyes open, I smiled timidly and crouched down with my hand poking his cheek lightly. "This is no place to be sleeping, you know."

He grumbled something I couldn't actually make out, and rolled to the other side. I couldn't find anything else to add on as I was staring at him with a blank face. That was until he suddenly got up and stared at me as if he had seen a ghost. It startled me really.

"Where have you been? We've been looking for you!" Rayden snapped at me, causing me to flinch in astonishment. My smile then turned to a deep frown, reminiscing what I had gone through earlier. It wasn't a pleasant memory that's for sure, but that was until I remembered Kirito's conversation with me after my battle.

"I'll uh.." I paused in an uncertain tone before standing back up. "Let's go back. I'll explain there.."

As soon I heard a word of protest from him, I immediately shot him a pleading look before walking back to the inn. That seemed to shut him up. He soon followed me afterwards as we had said nothing to each other until we reached our destination. The siblings were both there, being surprised and relieved that I was back alive. I felt a bit guilty for making all of them worry, and again, I was stupid enough to not realize that sooner. After we had settled in, I explained what happened and where I went to without mentioning my meeting with Kirito. Even now, I don't know why I didn't mention him to the others.

"You..actually fought Thai and other PKers?" Zumoka gasped out softly as I nodded my head solemnly.

I was sitting down on the bed while I wore the bandaged part of my kimono only, along with black plain sweat pants. I considered that outfit as my pajamas in the game, despite that I hated the top. I still think I like the bandaged part better when the kimono is on. The white covers surrounded my legs as I buried my head on top of my bended knees. My long hair loosely fell behind me when I looked up at the green eyed dagger wielder.

"Yeah...I lost though and managed to escape from them." I paused after saying that lie. My eyes closed as I turned my head away from the three, "Though if I see them again, they better run for it."

"Why would you do such a stupid thing?! You could have told us! You almost died!"

Rayden's strong words had startled me. His tone was full of anger, yet it was full of worry for my safety. Just the sound of it was enough to make me look straight at him with a startled face for a few moments before smiling genuinely to myself. The remembrance of Kirito's words of these guys needing me as much as I needed them replayed in my mind.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I was blaming myself for Syd's death.." I paused, reminding myself of what Thai and the other PKers had said to me about her. I actually had thought about finding out what Syd actually did to them, but then I decided not to.

I frowned gravely again, "If I hadn't attacked that skeleton and not doing my job, I would have watched her back."

"It wasn't your fault though, it was mine. I told her I would help her.."

"Technically..My fault too since I agreed to it." Zumoka's little brother added in the same guilty tone as her own.

I shook my head, "Actually it's no one's fault. Death is inevitable...We just need to accept it and move on. Sorry if that sounded harsh.."

Everyone had fallen to silence at my deep words, and really, that must have been the first time I actually got a good look on their faces. Ever since Kirito had confronted and helped me with facing reality, I started feeling a bit happier. To be honest, much more happier than I am now. Right now, it's a bit..Uh, never mind. Zumoka and Rayden were both staring at me with these looks of affliction, mixed with astonishment. The monkey was simply putting on a plain poker face, and if you have been wondering, there was a reason why we all call Zunaku monkey.

"You're okay though right? Zumo?" I asked the girl, staring at her with concerned golden eyes.

She only nodded her head. Before the dagger wielder was about to speak, I unintentionally interrupted her and proceeded on lying down on my side with my back facing them. I could tell she was stammering over her own words as if in hesitation, but I guessed it was due to the fact I had a sudden attitude change. I was usually so mellow and rarely smiling, and now I'm not.

"That's good. Keep it up, you're a strong girl." She was way stronger than me. The last thing I remember hearing before closing my eyes to sleep were the words, "You better not die on me."

Again, I smiled to myself and got mentally emotional again as a tear streamed down my face after recognizing that voice. I promised myself I would live and would never let that depression get to me again. I came back to my old self, but something still bothered me: My other friends. I didn't know whether or not they had survived too but back then, I would just believe and trust them. I would always anticipate the day we would all would be reunited with each other. I never expected that our meeting would be...complicated.

* * *

**A/N: This was a very difficult chapter for me to write and edit. You had no idea how much I had to change things around! I'm sorry if you-know-who was a bit ooc, I tried. Also, thank you shugokage for reviewing! I appreciate it! It made me all happy actually! XD Thank you! I hope you enjoyed it and review~**

**Next chapter: The Last of Us**

**P.S I got the name Resuscitated Hope from the first ending of GoSick. I thought that song would somewhat fit this chapter. ^^; **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

The Last of Us

Almost two months later, the four of us reached level 43 and had been staying at Floor 35 _Mishe _for those last two weeks. The reason was due to another rumor, and I wasn't surprised then. Zumoka had heard that a rare spawn was supposingly to reveal itself near the lake over at the 31st floor. It was said to be a dragon who gives a quite wide variety of rare equipments and items. The downfall was the fact that it was level 50. I found that piece of information very ironic, seeing how we were almost at the peak of being halfway to being level 100. So at that point, we immediately started training our other skills that could help each other out in some way. Rayden started to train his fishing and cooking skill, Zumoka started to train her cooking skill as well, and Zunaku was the only one who didn't want to train any skill. Instead, he was training himself to be an expert of equipment enhancement and equipment in general. So, I had guessed that could work either way since I was one of the careless ones to even care about doing things like that.

As for me, I focused more on my medicine making skill than on my sewing skill. That was an immediate decision I made for myself, especially after what happened on the "Day of Resuscitated Hope." After that day, I swore to myself I would never tell anyone about my conversation with Kirito since he was the main reason why I changed to who I am now. It is still a complicated thing for me to explain to the others, yet I am not sure myself why. The fear of losing someone still lingers me, so I told myself I won't let another being like Syd die...ever.

_Floor 35 Mishe - April 7, 2023_

It was a great and peaceful day on the day of April 7. I had believed it was because I was feeling at ease for once. It was safe to say: I can now sleep soundly without worrying of dying in my sleep. But something on this day happened.

"It feels like we've been fighting crap less and less everyday.." Zunaku lightly complained as we both walked down a street with a medium-sized grocery bag in each of our hands.

It was around the afternoon at the time, so the town was busy. But lately, it was getting busier and busier as days go by. I had assumed it was because more players are coming to the town more because they were either behind or for other unknown reasons. I had no clue. If this was an ordinary MMORPG, I would have become irritated at the fact people were catching up. It ails me for some reason when that happens, but in this game, that was obviously not the case. I was still learning how to enjoy life in Sword Art Online.

"It's not a bad thing though.." I yawned loudly. "We need a break once a while and besides..I'm so close to finishing that antidote potion!"

"Drug addict.."

I cringed before protesting against the nickname he kept giving me. "Ah?! Excuse me sir! But it's for the good of everyone!"

We both knew he was just joking around. He was 15 years old while I was 18..Ah well, 19. My birthday was back in March. It had turned out at that time that we were both too busy training ourselves to notice that my birthday had gone by. I guessed we all had lost track of the days, heh. It was funny though; I was the shortest out of every single person in our four man group.

Zunaku was putting on a really odd face, but he calls it his signature troll face. I could actually see it..He had the grin and everything. It was a bit creepy. I had rolled my eyes at his facial expression before looking ahead in case I would bump into something. We didn't..yet. With the streets being busy, it was somewhat difficult to pass through the crowds with a bag full of random ingredients. Both Rayden and Zumoka had given us the money to buy them in either a player shop or NPC shop. I was surprised at how cheap they were!

A few minutes later, the both of us heard some kind of commotion happening. When I turned to the source, there were a bunch of people crowding up around something. They were cheering too. I had stopped due to being distracted by it, especially at the thought of how uncommon that was in this village. So without a word, I walked closer to the excited crowd. I then made a mistake of not being careful to my surroundings. One of the people had accidently nudged me with their elbow, causing me to almost drop the bag. I wailed out a small cry before being relieved when I had managed to catch it on time. I then gave a glare at the male player, who on cue looks back at me with a curious look. That seemed to dramatically change to a look of fear after realizing how irritated I must have looked.

"I-I'm sorry Miss!"

I sighed heavily, "No worries."

I changed my frown of disapproval to a half smile to reassure him. I thought that there wasn't a reason to get mad at an accident. At that time, I heard footsteps approaching me and I already knew who the noises belonged to. Glancing to my side to check if I was right, the brown grocery bag was enough to prove my assumption was right. It was funny - I was actually planning on not being caught from wandering off.

My gold eyes looked back at the male in front of me as Zunaku went to stand beside me. "So, what's going on here?"

The white haired boy asked as the player turned his attention back to what everyone was watching. He was grinning in amusement, "It's another duel between Gin and Signus!"

I immediately opened my eyes in realization with pursed lips. "Those two are always fighting it out with each other. It's becoming a daily thing now!"

At that moment, my heart had sunk deeply. It was hard to process what I had just heard. Ever since _that _day, I had been searching for my other friends. I mentioned it already, but I had no idea how I should start doing that if I had no idea what their game name was. The reason why I was so speechless was because Signus was the name of one of those friends. Although his real life name is Andy, I recognized that sole name because it was the same name he had when I met him in another online game.

"Asaya..You don't think that's the Siggy we know, right?" Zunaku murmured. I could hear how speechless he was by the sound of his hush tone.

Snapping myself back to reality, the look on my face drastically changed to a stoic look. Signus wasn't the only name Andy would use in online games, so I was skeptical. I didn't know who Gin was at that time, so I had assumed he was someone who had been dueling Siggy. (Yeah, that's our typical nickname for him..It's a habit really.) I had completely forgot the fact that they were "always" fighting from what the stranger had implied. The fact that they are still dueling constantly to this day still bothers me because I had heard stories of people dying in duels somehow. I wasn't sure myself if it was true or not, but the thought of it just scares me. The other thing that bothered me was that it was Signus. He is usually a very nice and innocent young man, so I was afraid that one day his kindness might get him killed. Hell, I didn't even know he was the kind to even duel!

"Only way to find out yeah?" I grinned at the boy before pushing the grocery bag into his hands. Knowing then that he had no way of stopping me, I immediately charged in the mob of people as I heard what it sounded like a very loud scream. Zunaku had either raged or screamed something in the lines of "Why you do this!?" Either way, he wasn't a happy customer. I laughed to myself.

This was the only time I actually liked being small and short because I can go through the people without having to worry about anything. When I reached the people in the front, the first thing that caught my attention were the metal clashing and the struggle. Putting on an amazed look while muttering a low 'Whoa..', I was taking a mental note of things between the two fighters. I could immediately tell Signus was the one wielding a curved blade while his opponent was wielding a scythe? Now, that startled me. I had no idea until that moment that we could _have _scythes in this game. Gin was probably the first player I've ever seen with one. Actually, I believe that that duel was the first one I have ever watched in Sword Art Online! The two seemed to be really focused with Signus, the always calm one, and Gin, the always raging one. They had always been the opposites of each other. In this duel though, Signus was the one beating his opponent from the looks of things. I never quite understood duels back then. For the record, I dislike dueling now. The whole time idling around and watching, I was simply surrounded by cheering players. I was actually refraining myself from interfering, but I decided not to seeing how much their duel was making such a festival.

"God dammit Siggy! Why won't you stop moving!?" Gin sneered as he continued throwing slashes at the silent one dodging his every attack.

The scythe wielder had an unique style of fashion, that is. With short dark blue shaggy hair and short bangs falling to the side, his eyes were blue that could easily be mistaken as black. He was wearing a somewhat long sleeved dark blue long coat that has one of those long flap waving behind his legs. It was as long as his height. Silver metal can be seen on the coat, giving out its status as light metal equipment. He wore dark gray pants and dark blue shoes that also has the same silver metal lining around the shoes.

As for Signus, I could see that the boy was smiling and enjoying at how he kept dodging Gin's attacks successfully. What a troll. He had dark brown eyes, and jet black hair that looked somewhat similar to Kirito's except his bangs had a sort of separation of each other in the middle. He wears a midnight blue scarf around his neck that stops around his shoulders, a dark blue that is much darker than Gin's outfit baggy shirt with a tight belt around his stomach, a pair of silver gauntlets around his wrists like fingerless gloves, and his pants were simply leather pants with what it seemed to show the black greaves under them. I only guessed that they only equip those armor parts of their equipments in battle like Zumoka and I.

Signus continued dodging around to evade any attacks from the medium sized scythe before he finally swirled around Gin and attacked him without hesitation. The opponent swayed and landed on the floor as a large picture of the winner appeared to announce his victory. This made the crowd abrupt to louder cheering as I folded my arms bluntly and nodded my head twice. In my opinion, Gin was acting pretty reckless with his attempts on hitting his opponent. From my view, I witnessed Signus's mouth moving while offering a hand to Gin.

"Yeah yeah whatever..." The guy murmured, rolling his eyes before accepting the offer of being helped up. I couldn't help but smile pleasantly at this act. Usually when I watch duels, or PvPs, in online games, a person who loses were just sore losers. Of course there are some duels where the loser would calmly accept his defeat and it's always so reassuring to me. I was surprised though when Gin didn't do anything like that, so I had wrongly made an assumption that he was the type to do so. I had thought they must be good rivals not to let any losses get the best of them. I had always assumed Siggy wasn't the type to show anger from what I know.

As the crowd started walking away to various directions from the show, I could overhear people talking about the recent duel. I stayed there watching with my eyes still on the two. Eventually, Zunaku would approach me from behind as we both waited patiently for the right time to head to the group. The both of us noticed someone else near the two, who didn't seem to be one of the people watching their duel. As Signus sheathed his sword, that mysterious guy walked up to them.

"Hey Silver, why won't you join us?"

Again, my mind went blank. "Whaaaaaat?"

The white haired spear wielder said the exact thing that was on my mind then. I facepalmed hard. Unexpectedly, one of the other people we were looking for was Gin. We both knew him as Silver from another game just like Signus, but it was evidently different in this game. I had no idea.

"Hey! I don't call you Red, don't I?!" Gin protested angrily, glaring at the taller male.

At that point, I used my other hand to smack the hand that was already on my face to initiate a double facepalm. They were all there in front of us, and I felt so dumb to not realize that earlier. You see, Signus is always with Red no matter what as if they were brothers. So I shouldn't have found that so unexpected.

"Oh. Sorry, Gin." Red remarked sarcastically with a small smirk.  
"No problem Rizi." Gin replied immediately with the same sarcastic tone, glaring at the player.

I chuckled lowly under my breath at their conversation exchange before lowering my hands to place them on my hips. Despite my posture and the serious facial expression on my face, I was actually happy. I was relieved that the three I had been searching for had survived.

Rizi wore leather equipment like Zunaku. He is a tall guy, the second tallest person of the entire group with Rayden the first. With dark blue hair like Gin's, his hair was similar to his except his bangs were longer that fell to the other side. He has hazel eyes. Wearing a dark brown scarf tightly around his neck, I noticed that it was short and loose like Signus's. He wore a darker brown sleeveless torso shirt with a button that connects brown sleeves by wrapping a strap around each button on each side. There are two belts layered on each other in a criss cross manner on his stomach, connecting a ripped up cape behind him as the leather belt portion connected to the leather part covering his thighs. A black part of the pants was underneath that as belted long leather boots that covered up to his knees. I can see him holding a purple curved blade, which is also unique from my view.

"But no thanks. I'm a beater!" The scythe wielder added proudly with a bright smile, saying his self-proclaimed nickname. Zunaku and I had stared at each other with blank faces. I was feeling awkward just standing there, eavesdropping on the three a few feet ahead of us bickering.

"Right right. But, it doesn't mean you can't join us still." The persistent Rizi wasn't buying it, making the conversation more amusing to listen to.

"Dude why do you want me in your team so badly?"

"Siggy and I are planning on taking down that dragon on the 31st floor."

My eyes widened in astonishment, realizing that their intentions were the same as us four. What surprised me the most was the fact they were actually going to fight the dragon with their levels. Both Signus and Rizi were our levels while Gin was a level lower than us.

Gin literally leaned back at his answer, "You're crazy Rizi!" He then turned his attention to the silent Signus, "And you're okay with this?"

I refrained myself from laughing unlike Zunaku beside me at the sight of the boy putting on a clueless look and shrug lightly. Gin frowned at the response he just received before folding his arms in thought. I was beginning to think I should interfere at that point before Zunaku does. I didn't realize that he was enjoying the conversation that we were listening and watching.

"Come on~ We need help fighting it!" Rizi pleaded desperately, "No one wants to follow a rumor."

"But we do it all the time." Zunaku and I both commented loudly.

I then blinked dumbfounded before staring at the boy beside me, only to stare at his green eyes. It then took us a while to realize that we were being looked at by the group before us from our peripheral view. When I turned my head back to them, I could see Gin's clueless face, Rizi's confused face, and Signus's poker face staring at us. I felt so watched. At that point, I had thought that they had recognized us but at the same time, I doubt it.

"Hey ask that loli if she wants then Fernando." Gin suddenly suggested, pointing at me.

I cringed immediately with a fist in front of me, "Excuse me!? I'll come over there and kick your ass!"

My glare darkened after hearing the boy beside me laugh mockingly at the nickname. I turned to Zunaku with that look before noticing that Rizi was approaching me. Flinching in realization, I immediately took out my katana from its sheathe before pointing it towards the hazel eyed player.

"Come near me and I will slice your face off." I threatened harshly as the guy stopped his advance towards me and slowly raised his hands with a frightened look on his face.

"Wh-What? I-I wasn't going to do anything!"

"That's a lie and we both know it!"

I was practically shooting daggers at the womanizer with my piercing gold eyes. His real name isn't Fernando, but rather, it was a nickname we all came up just for him. It was a substitute name for a womanizer and someone who seduces women both intentionally and unintentionally. Rizi especially hits on shorter girls or lolis if you will, such as myself. It's annoying. Even now, he keeps pulling acts on me to the point I might actually kill him.

The flustered Rizi took a couple steps back, unsure on what to say as I also notice the fear in Gin's face. I then sighed before putting my sword back calmly.

"Anyway, why don't you guys join us instead?" Zunaku asked the three as I nodded my head and folded my arms.

"Yeah. We've been training to fight against that dragon for weeks now." I added with a careless wave of my hand. The look on their faces then showed skepticism.

"Well Rizi and Siggy would join, but I refuse! I'm not ready to die." Gin simply responded before rudely turning from us to walk away.

My face softened with pursed lips as I narrowed my eyes at the scythe wielder leaving. I could sense the worry look Zunaku was giving me as all five of us was silent in this intense atmosphere. I understood the reason Rizi was quiet was because he already tried asking the player to join, so he didn't want to ask again. Signus refused to talk because he rarely talks in the first place. Zunaku was hesitating on calling out to Gin, afraid to reveal ourselves to the rest. The word 'die' was what got to me at that point, remembering Syd's death and how we were all mourning for her death. The hands gripping my elbows tightened as I closed my eyes solemnly.

"Who said you are going to die in the first place? I'm not gonna let that happen Silver."

"How the hell?" I heard Gin cry out as I opened my eyes to see the startled looks on their faces. I had thought it was because I mentioned his other name. "Do I know you?"

I sighed before giving him a half smile. It made me glad that he had stopped his advance on leaving us. "Yeah. It's me Asaya."

"You're..Asaya?!" Gin and Rizi both cried out in unison with the scythe wielder pointing at me.

"Derp." Zunaku softly said, rolling his eyes at their reactions. Signus didn't say a single word, but I could tell from his face that he was as speechless as the other two were.

"So..That's Zunaku I assume?" Rizi asked softly, pointing at the said boy.

I nodded my head, now frowning at their surprised faces. Rizi looked at him before turning his attention at me as his facial expression grew serious. "Well you don't seem happy to see us."

I scoffed lightly before smiling sweetly at the male, "Trust me I am. I'm glad you guys are all okay but..."

Before I could explain, Gin had interrupted me the moment he swiftly approached us both to stare at us. It almost felt uncomfortable as I was ready to hit the scythe wielder with something. I was refraining myself not to.

"Are you really Asaya? You act like her and everything..Plus you're short.."

"Silver. I'm going to murder you." I glared at the boy, watching him as he quickly backed away with his hands in front of him.

"Okay that's her haha.." He laughed nervously while taking a long step back. "I'm sorry, don't hurt me!"

"Asaya we should head back before Rayden thinks you're shopping with his money again." Zunaku suggested as I raised a brow at him. "Eh? I do not shop with his money!

Of course, that was a lie.

"Where are you guys staying at?" Rizi asked curiously as the one holding the groceries departed without saying a single word. I had forgotten about the weight of the bags he had been holding. I instantly felt guilty, but I shook it off. I looked at the one who asked the question. "At an inn not far from here."

I paused with hesitation, averting my eyes to the ground before looking back at him with a gentle smile. At that point, I now felt tears welling up in my eyes. It even shocked me but I only thought it was because I was glad that they were alive. Refusing to let them see my tears falling, I turned around to Zunaku's direction with my hands together behind my back.

"But Silver..I mean Gin..I'm not going to force you or anything to join us, but it would just be nice if we all stick together. That goes for you too, Siggy and Rizi. I don't know what I'll do if I find out you guys die in this game, you know?"

I froze after hearing my voice cracking at the end, leaving me to gasp softly to myself. I started to follow after Zunaku, "Ah..Sorry, I'll see you later."

I did wanted them to stay with us because I told myself I would protect those close to me from death especially after _that _day. I would do anything practically, but like I had told them, I didn't want to force them to do so. In the end, you had no idea how happy I was when I saw both Rizi and Gin run pass me just to make fun of Zunaku holding the bags. I was startled to the point I had no idea how to react. I then realized that Signus was walking beside me, giving me a small smile as a way to reassure me of their decision. It made me feel weird that I felt my cheeks flushing before the boy averted his attention away from me timidly. When I witnessed that, I started to laugh softly at him before wiping my eyes to stop the forming tears from falling. I was relieved.

"Back! Sorry we took long!" I cried out first thing, entering the inn room of Zumoka's. Before we came there, the other three had registered themselves in the inn.

"God about time! You didn't go shopping again right?" Rayden replied, getting up from a chair as Zumoka did the same.

If it wasn't for his irritated face turning to a look of confusion and surprise, I would have yelled at him because of his assumption. I don't shop with his money! I do actually. The last time I went grocery shopping for the chefs, I actually did buy something I needed for medicine mixing. His face change made me smirk mischievously as I stepped inside the room to let the other four barge inside the room.

"Hey Rayden! Zumo! Long time no see!" Gin greeted the two with a hand raised up.

"Don't worry. I made sure she didn't." Rizi replied proudly as both Zunaku and I shot him a blank stare. Being silent as ever, Signus just came in and lied down on the bed with his hands behind his head.

"You found Silver, Siggy, and Red!?" Zumoka exclaimed happily, grinning as I nodded with a bright smile.

"Wow, that's surprising. Who's who?" The hammer wielder asked, walking to my direction with his hands on his hips and looking at the three curiously. At this point, I noticed Zunaku giving the bags to his sister as Rizi took a seat on the bed Signus was lying on. I couldn't help but notice the emotionless tone Rayden had.

"I'm Silver, but call me Gin. That guy sitting is Red, but he's Rizi in game. That other guy is Siggy as Signus." I had put on a straight face, watching as Gin pointed at the mentioned people respectively. It made me giggle at the sight of Rizi giving the scythe wielder a look of disapproval while Signus raised his hand to wave at them.

"Of course.." Rayden murmured, smacking his face as that made me giggle more loudly. Gin then took the seat Rayden was sitting on before as I smiled pleasantly with my hands together behind me.

"It's great to see you guys! What have you been up to?" Zumoka said to the three to initiate an one-sided conversation with them. Meanwhile, I had frowned deeply remembering the tone the tall male next to me had earlier that time. It was troubling me that I silently glanced at him to see the stoic look on his face. It even made me wonder to this day why he's been acting strange around them. That was the first time I've seen him looked so...emotionless.

I bit my lower lip before looking down at my feet, "S-Sorry..I invited them to the party, so I understand if you're.."

"No it's fine. Don't apologize." He interrupted me suddenly, giving me a bright grin. Despite that, I still looked at him with uncertainty before looking back down. The tone of his voice may sound bright, but it sounded so subtle. As much as I wanted to ask him what was wrong, I decided against it because I had always believed that everything was okay for him. I kept believing.

I felt his hand patting my head, which I ignored for I was still unsure of his answer. "Don't worry anymore~ They're alive now!"

"Yeah.." I nodded my head lightly, flashing Rayden a forced smile. The tall male then walked off towards Zumoka to help her cook as I was watching him closely. I knew then I had to find out what was wrong.

* * *

**A/N: And there's the rest of the party! I'm sorry - I wanted to type and post this up sooner, but things happened. I'm making slow progress writing the story due to it, and the fact I started rewriting a Pokemon fanfic makes it slower. Also now that the Alfheim Arc started up in the anime, I might have to read the light novel now when I have the time too since I'm debating whether or not to continue Fly Away! to that. It looks like a fun game to add these guys in. -evil laugh- So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!**

**Next chapter: Dungeon Run **

**-barrel rolls out-**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Dungeon Run

The night of the reunion ended with everyone chatting and enjoying themselves as I would call it 'the usual' with the group being together. I was glad on that day that we were all together. It almost felt like we all were hanging out with each other in our real life bodies. I had guessed it was because we were trapped here in this realistic virtual world. That feeling I had from Rayden was gone temporarily, but even on that night, there were times when I had sensed it. The uneasy feeling was beginning to bother me then. While we talked about random stuff, we all decided to run a dungeon together the next day. The person who proposed it was..well...Rayden.

Now I would be lying if I had thought that that wasn't suspicious, and it bothered me to the level of wondering what the hammer wielder could be really thinking. Again, I decided to go with the flow and waited patiently for the right moment to ask him. The least I can do was look out for any hints from him. The dungeon we all decided to go through was on the 32nd floor. I called it the maze dungeon because that was what the dungeon was from what I recalled being there the first time. Ah, darn my poor memory! It isn't the dungeon on the 27th floor, Labyrinth. Also, I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one who had thought of the many possibilities that could happen. However, I probably was the only one worried for our safety. It was going to be our first run together after all.

_April 8, 2023_

The designated time was around 10 A.M, and for the most of us, I could already understand that they might be waking up late. I was the first one awake despite the fact I was one of the lazy ones to wake up early. Having a certain time set though to meet up to do something was entirely different that I couldn't bring myself to sleep in. When I had realized that I woke up two hours early, I decided to make more potions in case anyone would run out and that included myself. It surprised me though when everyone started to wake up under the two hours that were left before we head out.

"Are we all good?" Rizi asked us as his voice echoed through the entire hallway we were walking through. We've already been in that dungeon for about..45 minutes. Maybe less, since that's how long it felt like to me. I was one of the people in the back with Zunaku, Signus, Gin, and Zumoka. It seemed like Rayden and Rizi were the leaders of this group for they were in the front.

I nodded my head silently as both Rayden and Zumoka replied with a simple, "Yeah."

In front of me, Signus slowly held up a sign that gained the attention of Zunaku. The monkey looked closer at the sign before opening his lips, "Siggy said that he lost the game."

"Dammit Siggy!" The majority of us screamed while Zunaku held a poker face.

At the same time, his sister was the only one crying out in agony. "Noooo!"

"Dude why are you using signs to talk?" Gin asked the same question in my mind at that moment. I had decided to walk closer to him curiously to see what the message he was evidently writing out would be this time. I took notice that it was an item similar to one of those small marker boards the user could simply write out a message and erase. It shocked me as much as when I found out Gin's weapon was a scythe. It read: _Why not? :D_

When he showed it to Gin, the scythe wielder groaned in annoyance as I started to laugh. I was laughing more at his emotionless face, rather than the fact he was using a message board to talk to us. The thought of why he was doing such a thing at the time still bothers me. I know I saw Siggy talking to Gin, and now knowing that he was using signs made me want to get him to talk more. I understand that he is probably the shyest guy I ever met, but I know there is going to be a breaking point for me where I want him to talk to us literally. I'm afraid it might cause problems for him.

"My question is HOW did you manage to get signs?" The hammer wielder asked, looking back to the person writing out a message. I had bet that Rayden was thinking that he had signs for _every _possible situation. The look on his dumbfounded face had said so. The thought of his face now makes me giggle.

"Bought it from someone?" He repeated the message out loud in confusion. "Who would..."

Rayden then sighed heavily and shook his head after interrupting himself, "I'm not even gonna ask."

I started laughing softly at the sight of the quiet boy putting up his next message, which was a simple _Lol.._It was a bit amusing, seeing how he didn't even look like he was laughing at that time.

Zumoka suddenly let out a cry as if she had figured out something, "Ohh! Maybe some monster drops it and it's rare!"

"Why a message board out of all things?" Her brother argued lightly, witnessing his response to be a light shrug from the green eyed girl.

"I don't know. Cause there might be mute people here?"

Before I opened my mouth to add myself into the conversation, I felt something bumpy under my foot then. It sounded almost like a switch. I froze almost immediately as the ground below us begin to shake violently. Everyone stopped their advance then, looking around in astonishment from the unexpected surprise.

"I didn't do it this time!" Gin screamed frantically before we all realized the ground started to break apart. It made me panic even more, aside from the fact I was the one in fault of this outcome. Why did I have to be the clumsy one of the group? My heart was beating so fast. I didn't know what was happening to us, and I had feared it.

"What's happening?!" Zumoka yelled this time as we all started clinging to the closest thing near us. I was still stuck staring at the fissure forming below me as it was tearing apart faster than anyone else's. "What do you think is happening?!"

The majority of us yelled back as I gulped nervously, "I-I'm sorry guys I accidently stepped on so...Huh?!"

Suddenly, I caught myself off guard when I felt myself falling down through the fissure.

For a split second, I blindly attempted to reach out to them while hoping anyone would catch me. Panic rose swiftly after witnessing my attempts was futile that I began to shriek in a high pitched tone and flail my body around. Darkness then surrounded me as I closed my eyes shut. I actually thought I was going to die at that moment. That was my only fear, accompanied by being alone. My fall didn't last long to my relief, so I ended up landing in a room so similar to any room of that maze dungeon. Although I had lost a large amount of health, I was lightly groaning in excruciating pain and rolled to the side. I begin to pant lightly too after that experience, trying to calm myself from it. Still, I was very relieved that I made it out alive. It felt like five minutes was the time I have been falling.

Groaning a bit, I sat up before speculating the area around me and my status. I took out a HP potion to cure myself. My hand was still shaking, because that shock was still overwhelming with fear. Oh man, the fear. If I am the one who cause the deaths of my own close friends, I wouldn't forgive myself. That was my thought at the time, so the safety of my party was bothering me. It was obvious that no one else was with me, and I also knew that I shouldn't stay in that room. I struggled to stand up then, and went through the only exit of the area. I encountered a lot of monsters, which took me a while to defeat them by myself. However, I couldn't keep it up because of the large amounts of monsters in that narrow hallway. It was difficult, but I wasn't going to let that get the best of me.

"Why did they have to appear now?!" I wondered out loud while slashing and killing every monster in a few hits.

I decided to end my killing spree before making a run for it through any space I manage to go through. Panting heavily under my breath, I saw a light inside the room ahead of me. My adrenaline rush quickened immediately as I started to run faster. I wanted out of that cursed hallway, so I was hoping that light was my one way out of hell. But nope! It turned out to be a room full of monsters expecting me to come to their trap. Letting out a startled gasp while halting to a complete stop, my mouth fell slightly at the scene. I was literally surrounded by monsters and had nowhere to go. I was trapped.

Taking a deep breath and looking at my half HP bar, I gripped my katana at my side and exhaled heavily. I had no choice, but to continue fighting my way through. I charged in the spacious room with my lips pursed, beginning my fight with the monsters. It almost reminded me of that time when I fought against Thai and his group of PKers, only ten times worse. I was actually near death. For ten minutes, I had been fighting and trying to survive until I ended up tumbling on the ground from being attacked by an axe on my side. I shrieked softly after seeing the axe coming towards me, and I swear, I felt like I was having a deja vu moment. Someone appeared to block the attack meant for me, and my eyes widened in realization after seeing the back of his head.

_'Kirito..?'_

I had whispered out loud before hearing the screams of defeated monsters. That brought me back to reality, along with the Kirito look alike pulling me up before making a run out of that room. I had managed to catch the eyes of the person after he was looking back at me with his brown eyes.

"Siggy!?" My, was it embarrassing to mistake him for someone else.

Letting myself get dragged, we continued running through the incoming hallway with the enemies chasing us. Occasionally, I'd look back to see those scary faces of the angry mob. Suddenly, we took a sharp right turn to a smaller hallway. It startled me, causing myself to stick on the wall right beside the silent boy. I was feeling a bit flustered because of how close I was to him. But I decided to brush it off and watch the monsters pass us while I was literally holding my breath. The moment they were nowhere in sight, I exhaled loudly.

I placed my hand on my chest and leaned my head on the wall, "Thank you so much Siggy. I almost died..again."

I paused to look at the male, only to notice his health. It shocked me that he had taken more damage than I did. This made me gasp somewhat frantically before taking out a healing crystal out of my kimono. "Don't overdo yourself geez! Heal!"

After watching his health recover fully, I smiled at the result before sheathing my katana. I didn't notice that he also took out his own healing crystal to heal me unexpectedly. I started to flail a bit at the realization I was being hit by something, but I timidly calmed down after figuring out what was actually happening. After it ended, I gave a glare at Signus before puffing my cheek in annoyance. "Thank you again."

He nodded his head with a small smile before taking out his message board to write something out and immediately showed it to me: _You're welcome and thank you too. You alright? _He wrote. My golden eyes wandered to the message before at the tall guy's blank face. I only guessed he was referring to earlier when I almost died and looked fragile. The thought of it made me blush before I shook my head violently.

"I uh.." I cleared my throat while putting a hand on my hip bluntly. "I'll be alright. Don't worry about me."

I managed to say with a bright smile. That wasn't the first time I almost died really. I'm like Zumoka in terms of always being the one close to near death. The only message I got from Signus was a '_Mkay'_before proceeding on writing out another message. At that point, I started to think how was it possible for him to pull a poker face. The things he writes on that board were the obvious things he wants to say. It makes me wonder really.

_I think I saw Ray and Gin around near here. Not sure.._

I put on a rather serious look before looking around the area in thought. Of course, you couldn't see anything in a narrow hallway. I sighed heavily in defeat and started to walk slowly to the other way. "Well let's look for them. No use for doing idle speculation right?"

I waited for Signus to catch up before heading back to what I called the main path. It was rather quiet between us and it didn't help when the boy was naturally quiet and I was thinking silently to myself. We both were on our top guard in case if any monster would show up. Unexpectedly, my party member had taken this time to write out a message, which he showed it to me to read afterwards.

_I thought you were shorter by the way. _

Within a few seconds, my face turned from curiosity to total irritation. Glaring at the swordsman now, I noticed that he was smirking in amusement. I didn't think I was that short. Compared to him, I almost hit his shoulders. He then let me read the next message he wrote out. _WHO ARE YOU?!_

"Were the caps necessary?!" I retorted angrily, giving him a quick smack behind his head with my sheathed weapon. After that, I can already tell that he was trying so hard not to laugh. It surprised me and yet for some odd reason, it was enough to calm me down. I let out a short laugh and looked away sheepishly while rubbing the back of my head slowly.

"You know, it would be better if you actually talk to us." I told him with a blank look.

_No thank you._

Again, I glared at him after getting the quick response. He has always been stubborn, but the funny thing was...We all are stubborn. No matter how many times I bug him about talking, I still believe that one day we will hear his voice. I still wonder if he is like this too with Rizi.

I sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

"You can lose the game!" Shooting my eyes open at the recognizable voice, I found myself being pushed by Signus to avoid an assault from above. It was obvious the culprit was aiming for him, but I just so happened to be in the crossfire. I heard metal clashing the moment I landed on the ground.

"Gin! Watch where you swing that thing!" Rayden yelled angrily, making me cringe at the tone and the pair of hands on my shoulders supporting me. I perked my head up to watch the two fighting with an annoyed look. Although Gin had apologized, I still was getting angry every second. Was it really necessary to ambush us? I had thought. My patience was about done, and it was clear to everyone..I was in a bad mood.

Gently taking Rayden's hands off, I continued to glare at the two as I stood up to walk slowly them. I tried to go on Gin's blind spot for he was my first target, so as soon I close enough to the distracted scythe wielder, I swiftly hit his side with the hilt of my katana. Signus had pulled back, and I assumed it was because he saw me coming. "Sorry won't cut it!"

"Owww why me?!"

I gritted my teeth in anger, watching with narrowed eyes as a hammer suddenly hit his head. I hesitated at that moment, letting out a soft gasp before watching the suspect walk away innocently. Although I was staring at him with a look of disapproval, I decided to ignore his recent action.

I then placed my hands on my hips, "I'm glad you're safe and everything, but we don't have time for this. We need to find the others!"

I scolded mainly to Gin since he was the one who started all the commotion. Sometimes I wonder if they understood the situation back then. Three other people were missing, and god knows what might be happening to them right now. It just irritates me when others are ignorant to something that important. Then again, it annoys me when others are ignorant to anything important in general! How could they just let it slide and act as if they could careless?

"Okay okay!" Gin caved in then before standing up with an apologetic face. "Sorry. I uh..I saw Fernando and Zumo close by before we found you guys."

"Ohh..That guy better not do anything weird to her." I responded immediately, shooting the air beside me with a murderous glare. It was honestly the first thing that came to my mind.

Ignoring the laughter from Rayden and the loud sound from Signus for he was smacking his face, I turned to the direction of that path I previously walked on with the silent swordsman. I was thinking that if Gin had seen them close by, then maybe we should look around for them. But..That wasn't the case apparently. It turned out that they came to us. Every single one of us stopped at the sound of loud screaming that seemed to be coming closer to our general direction. It sounded like a female, and the first person that came to my mind was a certain female. Turning around at the source's direction behind us, I saw Zumoka running away from a horde of angry looking monsters.

"Ruuuuun!" The girl warned us frantically.

Only Rayden and Gin both did after seeing the sight of her. I stayed put in hesitation, debating whether or not to draw my sword to at least stray the monsters away from my friend. However, the monsters behind the girl were frightening me and I had no idea why it was making me afraid. Signus had to grab my wrist to drag me away as he proceeded on running after the two.

"What the hell Zumo!? Where's Fernando?!" I heard Gin scream from the front.

"He went to save my brother at the boss room!"

I let out a startled gasp after hearing her answer before looking back at the younger girl with a disbelief face. "What!?"

"What the fuck?! He went in without us? He's going to die!" Rayden screamed after my response.

I winced at that point, feeling Signus's grip tighten unexpectedly. When I looked down at his hand with an astonished look, my head then perked up to stare at the back of his head. I found it surprising that even someone like the dark haired swordsman would show his emotions by his actions. Another proof of that would be earlier when he had quietly healed me. His action was what got me more motivated to turn around and fight.

"No! He probably didn't realize that it was the last room!"

Anyone could hear the desperation and anger in the older sister's voice. She was worrying more for her little brother more than anyone. As much as I wanted to question what happened before her and Rizi split up (or what I had assumed), I refrained myself not to and decided to think of important matters like the situation we were in then. I couldn't handle the suffering my best friend must be feeling. It almost felt as if her words were pushing me to fight. I couldn't take it.

"Siggy." I softly called to the person pulling me, witnessing his brown eyes look back at me with confusion written all over his face.

I knew he wanted to help as much as I do. I didn't know about the other two then, but that wasn't the time to make sure things were certain. Putting on a look of determination at him, I looked away to stare at the girl behind us.

"He's back there, isn't he?!" I questioned her loudly, seeing her nod eagerly. The dark haired male and I made eye contact then before stopping ourselves in unison. We both changed to an offensive stance as Zumoka widened her eyes in shock at our sudden action. I deliberately pulled her closer to force her pass us, letting Signus push back the monsters close to us.

Gin and Rayden both halted to look back in order to see what was going on. I jumped in to attack a monster from above.

"Asaya! Siggy!" The two yelled before I heard their footsteps approach us.

The sound of it made me off guard that I had to block an attack, "Stop! All of you go to the boss room!"

"Don't be a hero Asaya!" I glared murderously at Gin, watching him put on a fearful look before I continued fighting off the monsters. I remember..That was the first time I've shown to the others how serious I could get when I'm in a bad mood. The looks on their surprised faces linger in my mind now, but all I was thinking about was the safety of the other two. I managed to dodge an attack before using a horizontal slash on the attacker. Signus seemed to be doing well on his side.

"Siggy and I can handle things here. Just please help Rizi and Zunaku!"

I was begging, and I knew I was. I could hear my own pleading tone. I couldn't just stand by and let those two in the boss room alone. Even if they had somehow escaped the room, I had the sudden urge to make sure they were okay. I was certain that Zumoka would want to see if her little brother was okay as well. After a few moments of their silence while I continue to fight alongside with Signus, they finally decided to move.

"Alright, you win. Let's go Zumo!" The raven haired male replied in defeat before literally dragging the girl through the battles going on. "Wait no! Asaya! Siggy!"

Again, I was almost caught off guard by her pleading cries but I had to refrain myself from regretting this decision. It didn't take me more than a minute to realize a certain hammer wielder hadn't gone yet or didn't even say a single thing. I pursed my lips to a frown, thinking to myself of the things the man was most likely thinking in his head. "Rayden…Please trust me."

Even if my words didn't make him talk, it sure made him shift forward. I was greatly startled when he attacked a monster near me before swinging his weapon to kill it the next hit. His actions made me speechless and I had frozen in place, giving him a look full of worry. I didn't know whether or not he wanted to join the fight. He then turned to look at me with a rather serious look on his face. "You guys better be careful then…Siggy, you better watch this crazy chick here!"

I flinched in annoyance, shooting daggers at him. "Ah, shut up and go already!"

As I watched him run off towards the same direction Gin and Zumoka went, I didn't realize that I was being targeted from behind until Signus attacked it. I had gasped in astonishment before giving him a quiet thank you of my own and proceeded on killing the last of the monsters. The time wasted wasn't a lot however. The fact that I wanted to hurry and meet the others was the only thing that got me motivated on killing everything in my way. It almost seemed like I would make sure Signus wouldn't do anything reckless, and vice versa. He must be a very mysterious guy if he knew I was in a bad enough mood to go on a killing spree.

By the time we finished, the both of us headed straight to the direction we came from. It was humiliating to think that we had gone the wrong way the entire time, but again, I didn't care. I only cared for my friends and their situation. It was surprising to see my partner was ahead of me, so all I saw was the back of his head. That image of Kirito again flashed in my mind with his mouth telling me those words, "Just stay alive for your friends." I had always followed those words, and the memory of the event that accompanied with it is always there to remind me. We became closer and closer to the point I knew we were because of the cries and metal clashing. They were in combat already. The doors of the boss room were already opened, and unlike Signus, I stopped immediately on the door way to watch was happening before me. Signus had gone in to attack a giant behemoth with wings that looked like hands, wielding a machete. It could easily be mistaken for a minotaur when it wasn't. I was mostly in shock with what was happening.

Now that I think about it, this was the first time where I had first witness as a spectator to how our team works together. Signus, Rayden, Zumoka, and Rizi would be in the front attacking while the other two support whoever needed to drop out. In this case, Zunaku was switching with his sister while Gin would help Signus. Things may switch around depending on the boss. Right now, they were handling that minotaur boss well. I wasn't just idling around though, but rather, I was observing every single person's HP bar. When I saw Zunaku's HP bar, I immediately reminded myself that he was the first one to be in this room and his health was the lowest out of everyone.

I ran to his general direction, going around the battle so I wouldn't be in the middle of any crossfire. "Zunaku, I'll take over!"

"M'kay!" As soon as the monkey pulled back to rest, I came attacking in his place at the boss in time for his machete to meet my katana.

The boss battle went on for what it felt like for half an hour until we successfully killed it with Rizi taking the last hit. Everyone was fine. We all celebrated in that area, cheering because we all managed to live. I had thought we did exceptionally well for our first time together.

"Who's up for another dungeon!?" Rizi cried out with a fist in the air as the majority of us stared at him with blank faces.

"Hell no!" Gin cried out an immediate response.

I raised my hand lightly, giving the boy a poker face. "Sorry, but it's a bit late for us to another dungeon."

"If you forgot, I almost died because a certain someone just decided to attack the boss." Zunaku added in a somewhat harsh tone, glaring at the person.

"At least I came and kept you company!"

"Hah, no." It was obvious that the youngest of the group was holding a temporary grudge.

Zumoka slowly stepped up between the two, putting up her hands to try to calm the two down. "Hey..At least no one died right?"

_Oh just about half of us almost died..But we're good. :D_

I snickered at Signus's message after showing it to us as I watched the five having their own one-sided conversation. While watching it with a small smile, my eyes wandered off to Rayden who was being unusually quiet. My smile slowly turned to a worried frown, noticing he had that look from that other night. This time though, I took a mental note that he was giving that concentrated look at Rizi. Now that I think about…Those two never got along to begin with.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah..One of my friends gave me this idea that Signus would be one to use one of those message boards. I thought it was funny, so I added it in. I understand if I get yelled at for it. But again, I'm writing this story for fun and for others to read. (Including my friends who I added in this story. xD) Again, I'm sorry for the late update. I should be sleeping now for school, but I feel bad for not updating like I do every weekend. That would explain if some things may seem off. So, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next weekend! **

**Next Chapter: The Bet**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

The Bet

_April 9, 2023_

It has been two days since I reunited with my other friends with Rayden, Zumoka, and Zunaku. As usual, we would stay at the 35th floor solely because of that rumor about the dragon. That monster was basically all we talk about at the time, despite the fact that most of our spare time was spent training and doing our own thing. I will not lie, I had always hated the times we distance ourselves from each other. It was bad enough a certain hammer wielder had been giving an uneasy aura when a certain someone was near. I chose not to intervene..yet that is. We didn't do a single thing together ever since that run in the maze dungeon. I was a bit bothered by it. I would usually walk around town for any information about the dragon or train my medicine mixing skill.

On this day, I was walking around town for more pieces of information. Rizi and Signus were both training somewhere. Zunaku was most likely in town looking at shops. I had no idea where Zumoka was, but I know that she wasn't in her room. Rayden was in his room, probably sleeping or just didn't want to answer the door when I had knocked on it earlier that day. Every time he would ignore me, I always feel discourage to confront him...I always believe that the guy would open up eventually. It made me sad though..So much for my words of being there for everyone.

"So...Is this where you always go when everyone is separated like this?"

Sitting across from me was Gin, who was eating a piece of bread moderately with a collected look. In my hands was the same type of bread that the raven haired player offered to buy for me, which I didn't take a bite out of yet. While scouting around town, I came across this bakery known as Bani's bakery. The player who made the shop was a green-eyed and dirty blonde haired young female named Bani. Her and Gin were close..Very close. I found the scythe wielder chatting with her. I felt a bit awkward for barging in on them, but I blamed the smell of the food.

"Yeah pretty much. I'm too lazy to fight stuff."

I stared at him blankly, "Sure you are."

He was acting odd than usual, I had noticed. Now taking a small nibble, I continued watching him closely while he was distraught with the air beside him. That would explain why he was the lower level out of all seven of us. Sure he is the carefree one of the group, but I had decided not to question his motives.

"What about you? You're usually with Ray, aren't you?"

I winced at his question, showing obvious hurt on my face before immediately changing it to a fake smile. "Y-Yeah well..! He's sleeping..I rather not wake him up."

I laughed nervously before stuffing my mouth with the bread. Gin didn't know I haven't been able to talk to the guy for those past two days. He had probably seen me visit Rayden once in a while to check his progress on training. I was with him more than anyone. But even I can tell that Gin wouldn't buy my lie. The awkward silence surrounded us again, and I was left hearing my own thoughts for a few minutes. I lightly lowered my head and stared at it with sad golden eyes,

"So what's up with you? You're acting weird.." I finally asked, glancing up at him in worry.

"I've been thinking.." He paused to look at me with his serious eyes. "About our group. Are we actually going to be able to beat the dragon like this?"

I raised my brow in confusion, "'Like this as...?"

But a second later, I actually understood what he meant. Letting out a soft gasp, I eased my shoulders and frown gravely. "Oh..You too, huh?"

The boy nodded silently as I sighed. I didn't realize until then that I wasn't the only one thinking about it. We both were worried that teamwork might be a problem, and yet the only thing that seemed to reassure me was the outcome of the showdown with the boss. It was as if they all managed to work together at the last minute. That was my theory, along with that they must have gotten serious when the time to be came up. I then told Gin my two theories, and what I was thinking about the group separation. I even added how I kept witnessing Rayden giving suspicious looks to Rizi.

"Asaya, I don't blame the guy. But never mind, you just gave me an idea."

The scythe wielder surprised me the moment a wide grin spread across his face. It looked rather menacing as if he was scheming something. I always fear that grin on ANYONE'S face.

"You said that our teamwork might be a problem right?"

"Uh-huh.." I nodded slowly with a half-expectant face.

"What if we go in a dungeon and get _stuck _in some random and separated room? We'll then tell them where we are and see how long it'll take them to get to us. We'll see who will save who then!"

I face palmed immediately as soon as I heard his idea, "They'll think we're stupid for not teleporting out! And you also sound like I'm doubting them, which I'm not."

"Yes, but that's why we'll pretend we got kidnapped and got dragged to the dungeon. We'll say that they got our crystals."

I'm telling you now, the more he elaborated his idea to me, the more I was getting me more convinced. It took me a while to think about it too. I had guessed the main reason for this risky scheme was to see how well the others work together. When I thought back the day when we found out Zunaku and Rizi were in trouble, it actually made sense that they would do the same for us.

"But why would you have them choose? Don't you think that's a bit suspicious if we're in different rooms? Some of them would be too lazy to go to the farthest person.." At that moment, the faces of everyone except Rayden and Zumoka flashed in my mind. I was pretty sure the majority of them wouldn't come just for that reason.

"We can set rules like 'You have thirty minutes to save this person.' Besides..I wanna make a bet."

I groaned in disbelief and rolled my eyes, "I saw this coming..Okay, shoot."

Gin grinned slyly and pointed to himself, "If more people save me, you have to give me every drop you get from that dragon."

"Fine..." I then smirked rather menacingly. "But if more people save me, you have to be my model when I start sewing. And that include dresses."

After hearing the words that had came out of my mouth, I put on a dumbfounded face and shook my head slightly. "I..can't believe I'm agreeing to this."

"Hey if you need people to help, I have a few friends who wouldn't mind acting as kidnappers!" Bani suddenly joined in, and as expected, Gin agreed to it right away. I had no choice but to agree as well.

After that, we set our plan in motion. The dirty blonde's friends were both mace wielders with the names of Akrisae and Kaza. They were both friendly, and I wasn't getting any bad feelings from them. I had to trust them. Their levels were the same as Gin, which were 44 then. I was 46 at the time, along with the Signus, Rayden, and Zumoka. The other two were 45. Just as what Gin explained, we headed to the dungeon on the 32nd floor.

Again.

_32nd floor..._

The moment we entered the dungeon, I took notice that the floor had a different layout than the last times I came in there. I was starting to see a pattern at that point. After taking a few steps inside, we decided to look around for any rooms we can use. It was already planned I'd go with Akrisae while Gin would go with Kaza.

"Hey.." I called to the three, which I immediately got their attention. "What if the dungeon changes its layout again?"

"I don't think it will." Kaza replied sternly. "Since we're already in here, I don't think it'll change."

I decided to believe his words then, so I simply nodded my head at the mace wielder with a somewhat skeptical look. It had actually made sense with that reasoning, but I was more worried about our plan. Well, Gin's plan. Why was I worried? Something always seems to go wrong when I'm involved in some situation like this. Occasionally, we would encounter monsters but we had no trouble killing them. The thing I noticed about the two mace wielders was how they tend to stay very still until they retaliate at the perfect time. I found it a bit ironic..Here we are doing some scheme just to figure something out and these two strangers already know how to work well along with us both.

"I found a couple rooms up ahead!" Akrisae informed us loudly as he was making his way towards us. We had stayed put to rest because of the monster encounters tiring us. Kaza nodded his head bluntly before giving me this accusing stare. "What now Asaya?"

I shot him a confused stare back, "Why are you asking me? This is Gin's idea."

"But you agreed to it, did you not?" He responded back, causing me to fluster around at the truth. I ignored the fact I was being laughed at because of my speechless state before groaning in defeat. The guy had a point. A very..good point.

"Fine! Ugh..We can check them out I guess.." I paused before looking back at the path we came from. I was trying hard not to show that I was worried...and embarrassed from my earlier feat.

I turned my head back to look at Gin before folding my arms, "This plan of yours better work sir.."

"Don't worry! We'll make it work...Not like anyone will end up dying."

I narrowed my eyes at him in anger, "That is not something to joke around with."

That was the last thing I said to the careless guy before walking to the direction Akrisae came from. It had angered me, but I only guessed it was because of the fact that I was worried for our safety. I remembered that was the point where I started thinking about clearing the game just to get out of this nightmare. The room that Akrisae found had a trap that made it obvious that it was one due to the lever switch on the wall across the entrance. Apparently, the room across from it was another trap room that was holding a small treasure chest in the middle. I had warned the three about the traps before we would go in.

"Okay uhh.." I turned to the three timidly before looking back at the room with the treasure chest. "I'll take that room and Gin will take the other. Kaza, can you message the rest of our friends about our kidnapping and such. I'll trust you won't mess up giving directions and Gin will tell you the names of them.."

At that point, I knew I was hesitating because these were people we just met. Kaza seemed more of the responsible one out of the duo, yet I had found him intimidating sometimes. It's a bit obvious why. They didn't seem bad at all..But I kept my guard up either way.

I bowed politely to the two mace wielders, "And I'm sorry for involving you in my friend's idiotic plan."

"Oh come on!" Gin protested in irritation as I glanced away from him with an innocent look.

I averted my eyes back to the raven haired male, "You honestly should be thanking them for helping. It's not my place to thank them."

I argued back calmly, now straightening up and putting my hands on my hips. I was annoyed. Even though I had felt more pleased at the sight of the scythe wielder thanking them, my eyes were always on the mace wielder who is acting as the kidnapper of Gin. So at that point, we separated inside of our respective rooms and waited patiently. I leaned on the back wall, sitting with my legs up to my chest while my concentrated eyes lay on the treasure chest trap. I know I had told the two about the lever in the other room, but I was still concerned. Gin can sometimes be the kind to activate a trap on purpose. Akrisae silently stood a few inches in front of me with his weapons out, acting as if he was keeping me hostage. He was facing the other way with that serious look on his face, and just the sight of him acting then would cause me to stifle a laugh. It was hard to take the guy seriously.

Fifteen minutes passed. I was already bored out of my mind that I had been playing with the menu screen by opening and closing it repetitively. Every once in a while, I would catch Akrisae shooting me this weird look. I found it amusing...Until I found out the real reason why he was giving me such a look.

"Hey, I got a question." The mace wielder suddenly spoke as I continued playing with the menu. "Hmm?"

"What are we going to do when they come here?"

I perked my head up from my opened menu to give him a look of confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well..Someone is going to come before everyone else...And you're supposed to be kidnapped..They might teleport out and tell the others.."

It took me a couple seconds to understand what the male was trying to say until it finally hit me. That was right, I had thought. If the others saw a person from the group heading back with an annoyed face (most likely), then they might warn the others about our plan. After freezing with widened eyes and pursed lips, I immediately closed the menu rather harshly and glared at the spot it disappeared from.

"Crap! I didn't think that far..!" I screamed frantically, curling my hands at my side to angry balls of fist. There was no way we can have the others come and then head back, I had thought. Besides, the thoughts of Rayden scolding me for something stupid was severely bothering me.

"Didn't think about what Asaya!?" I heard Gin yell from his room. I didn't bother to ask how he could hear me, but I only assumed it was because he was situated right across my room. So, I decided not to question it.

"What are we going to do when they come here?!" I answered back in the same annoyed tone as his, putting on a look of distress.

"Ohh..Well..uh.." His voice was gradually decreasing to uncertainty as a moment of silence then took place. "Do any of you have ropes?"

I smacked my forehead at his simple request before opening my menu once again. The first thing I noticed was that I had a message. Uh oh...Gulping nervously at the sight of it, I then let out a heavy and shaky sigh upon opening it. It was from Rayden, which had caused me to wince in slight hesitation.

_"How the hell did you and Gin get in this mess? I have to save one of you two now?..What happened!? I'm coming now, so you better stay put."_

My face softened after every word I read from the message. I then closed everything and sighed again, letting the guilt hit me. I was certain he would rather save me than Gin in a tight situation like this..But the others - I wasn't sure myself.

"Oy Asaya! I got a message from Siggy and Zumo!"

I was startled, "Wh-What? What did they say?!"

"Siggy said he's gonna save me..when he's not lazy. That son of a cookie!"

I couldn't help but laugh at his annoyed tone. He sounded as if he was reading the message. "But Zumo is coming to get me HA!"

"Oh hush! At least I have Rayden.."

It literally had caught me off guard after hearing that my best friend would rather save Gin than me. I shook my head rapidly as an attempt to brush the negative thoughts out of my head before looking up at Akrisae. He wasn't talking for a few minutes, and I could see why then. From the looks of it, the mace wielder had fallen asleep on his feet. I had no idea how that could happen, even now, but it slightly creeped me out.

I cleared my throat, "Hey Kaza! What exactly did you tell them?"

"I simply told them that we are holding you hostage individually for an hour until we kill you. But they have an option of choosing you or Gin. They must not tell anyone else, otherwise we will kill you as soon as we see reinforcements. I also gave them the directions. Is that good enough?"

"And yet they still message us thinking we won't get in trouble.." I deadpanned with a blank look before leaning my head back on the wall. "That's good. Thank you again Kaza."

"Sooo...What are we gonna go when they find out?" Gin suddenly asked.

I groaned in disappointment, "I quit!"

At that moment, I heard footsteps approaching us by the echoing of it through the hallway. Akrisae woke up on cue, and startled me when he suddenly raised his mace in front of me. I looked at him with an uncomfortable look before realizing he was giving me this smile of reassurement. It had calmed me down after understanding that he was just acting. I had always thought that he was very odd one. The footsteps then came to an immediate stop in front of my door. I gulped again nervously, staring at the door in anticipation to see who my first visitor is. The atmosphere felt rather suffocating due to the intense aura. The door finally opened.

"Okay, I'm here with the money! Go ahead and kill Gin and give me the loli!"

"Go to hell Fernando!" Both Gin and I screamed in unison.

While I was gritting my teeth and shooting daggers at the astonished male, Akrisae was rather calm at the intrusion. "Money?"

I heard him say, making me calm down almost immediately before pondering what he meant by that request. I stared at the mace wielder in confusion before at Rizi, who looked as confused as we were.

"Well they asked for 5k Col..Or my choice would be killed." The tall guy explained slowly as everyone else fell silent.

I then raised a fist and shut my eyes closed, "Kaza..What the hell?!"

"I apologize. I forgot to mention that." Kaza responded back casually.

"I call bullshit!" I roared angrily before standing on my feet.

"I am so..confused. What's going on?" Rizi asked in confusion as I turned my attention to him.

I could see that he was fidgeting and looking around like he was lost. It made me sigh heavily and fold my arms, taking that time to calm myself down from the earlier outburst. I told him about the real situation, along with the bet between Gin and I. Of course, I left out the true motive behind it and lied saying that we were bored. I remembered it was the only excuse I could think of. Despite the fact that I was angry at him for calling me a loli, I was glad that he took our test very well. However, even Akrisae can tell that he was also careless after I apologized for having him worry. I had to go easy on him since he was the first person to show up after all. The rest of the group had about 35 minutes.

He then asked about the treasure chest in the room, which I found to be random, but I answered anyway. "It's a trap, so I wouldn't touch it."

"M'kay.." Rizi responded with a small hint of skepticism. I raised my brow after his tone before we heard another echoing sound of footsteps. The male across from me turned around, wary that someone else was coming. I also looked at the general direction the footsteps were coming from.

"Hey Rizi you should hide somewhere!" Gin suggested from the other room.

The confused Rizi frowned, "Can't I just teleport out?"

"..." I started to panic because of the footsteps coming closer and closer. The two talking casually wasn't helping at all since everyone should have been quiet the moment we would hear someone coming. I desperately looked around for a place, or anything to help me find the answer. I had no choice.

I pointed at the corner of the room that I had considered to be a blind spot for anyone coming through the door, "Just hide in the corner!"

When I saw that he wasn't moving and was giving me this look of disbelief, I flailed my arms around. "Go already!"

He did as soon as I uproared from my lack of patience.

"Ha. She's putting you in the corner.." I heard Gin say with laughter as I narrowed my eyes at the door and sat back down silently with my eyes closed.

I was feeling guilty for having to yell at him. It was bad enough that every time I calm down, I get in a bad mood almost immediately. I remembered I was reflecting my actions in my head, making me feel a bit depressed. It took me that long to realize that I was carrying those previous feelings from that day. I would be enjoying myself with that scheme I was a part of, but maybe..It was my worry? I never understood what triggered it to make me act like that on that day. Did I doubt my friend's trust of not letting every single one of us down? Was I afraid? I didn't know, but when I look back at this now, it most likely was.

"Asaya!" My eyes widened at the door flying open to reveal my next visitor. It was Rayden. And boy, those glaring red eyes I saw on his face reminded me of the day we all found we were trapped here. It still intimidates me.

I hesitated on saying his name, but stopped myself mid way to realize the door across the hall was being barged in by Zumoka. I knew it was her because of her signature checkered top. It had surprised me, remembering that she was going to save Gin instead. I didn't realize though that the hammer wielder was charging towards Akrisae.

"Let her go!" The man swung his hammer sideways. It was almost too late for me to warn my 'kidnapper' or do something about his attack, but it made me relieved to see he was focused on fighting back. I ended up rolling out of the way because of the radius of Rayden's hammer and set myself in a crouching position.

"Rizi check the other room! Please make sure no one is hurt!" I ordered the boy, who immediately nodded his head and ran out the door. When I looked back at the other two in the room, it seemed like Akrisae had dodged his attack and moved to my direction.

I was still hesitating because of the look on Rayden's face. He proceeded on charging in on another attack, "Rayden stop!"

I tried to call out to him, but he was still aiming to swing his hammer towards Akrisae. I then thought that if my words won't reach him, then my actions will. The next thing was probably the most second reckless thing I have ever done. I pushed the mace wielder out of the way, letting the hammer impact my side. For a split second, I saw that shocked facial expression I would always laugh at every time I would glare at him. I wasn't laughing then.

"Ack!" I cried out as I hit the wall and laid on my side, withering then in pain. After coughing for a few seconds, I looked at my HP bar decreasing, giving me this fear that I was going to die. I was so relieved to see that it had stopped almost ¾ of my health. I rolled to the other side slowly and glanced at the two staring down at me. Akrisae had a worried look, but Rayden had a facial expression mixed with hurt and confusion.

I forced a smile before pushing myself off the ground to a sitting position, "Don't worry..I'll be fine.."

"That's good..." The mace wielder let out in relief.

The others in the other room came running in with Zumoka leading them. "Asaya you're not hurt right?"

I saw the green eyes of the girl were putting on the same hurt look Rayden was putting on. It was making me feel guiltier, but I ignored it by flashing a smile towards my best friend.

"This is nothing! I'm fine!"

"What the hell is going on?" Rayden immediately asked, giving Gin and myself a stoic look. I winced at his harsh tone, and glanced away from his cold eyes. It was concerning then that I was hoping that he wasn't mad at me for being dragged into some stupid mess. In the end, Gin and the others explained the same thing I had explained to Rizi earlier that day to the two as I was recovering myself. At that moment, I was scared to even look at Rayden. To think that this was almost half of the fun.

Gin: 1  
Me: 2

* * *

**A/N: For some reason, I feel like this is my favorite chapter yet. I think I rushed a bit at the end, so I apologize for that. I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review~ I'd appreciate it! See you next week!**

**Next chapter: The Unexpected Outcome**


End file.
